Looking past the recent vegan drama, have you ever wondered why your pet might not like particular foods? Have you ever actually tasted the food yourself?
I have, and some taste more like a chemistry lab than actual nutrition.
Animals don’t taste the same way we do. For example, cats don’t have the receptors for tasting sweet things…so they can barely detect sweetness at all.
Dogs only have 25% as many taste buds as humans, so most things have a very mutes taste for them. Plus, every dog I’ve ever had absolutely LOVED cat shit covered in kitty litter, so I never put much faith in their sense of taste.
Yeah, they’ll have flavors they like more or less, just like us, but even we can’t trust our sense of taste as a metric for nutrition…if we could, we’d all be addicted to brocolli and spinach instead of processes foods and sugar.
How do you know that the only reason you don’t like cat shit is because you have a cultural revulsion to it?
My wife fucking loves coagulated blood. Like just big old chunks of blood which was packed into casings and boiled until it became a massive chunk of scab. Meanwhile I legit cannot be in the same room with it. As far as I’m concerned it might as well be cat shit
I recall seeing in a special card at a Chinese restaurant “Pigs Blood with Mixed Vegetable”. Sounds awful to me but some people must like it.
black pudding? white pudding?
I also wouldn’t know what my dog thinks of the taste of cat shit, as that’s not on his menu. Not sure where that thought came from even, that’s not even food.
I’m referring to actual food products for pets. If the pet doesn’t like it, there’s probably a reason why, and that reason is likely that companies tend to make substandard foods not suitable for human consumption for pets.
I had a Jack Russell who was crazy about eating out of the litterbox. Just horrifying, obviously. Maybe it tastes like meat, idk, who knows what it smells like to a dog.
lmao nobody feeds their dog cat shit. but they try to eat it anyway because they are dogs and they’ll eat a dirty diaper if you don’t throw it away out of reach. smh
Man y’all got some dumb dogs out there apparently.
Guess what?
If my dog refuses to eat what’s supposed to be a dog treat, and I try it and it tastes like a chemistry lab, then I think me and my dog both agree it tastes more like chemicals and more toxic than garbage.
Even if humans and animals have different taste buds, if the food tastes wrong, ain’t nobody gonna eat it.
I got some “human grade” dog treats that are little sliced sausages and they smell delicious. Like actual edible salami. Haven’t tried them yet but I’m tempted to.
A friend of mine back in middle school did a science project on what cat food tastes the best. He used his cat as the main experiment, but when he presented his project he also had samples for everyone to try and vote on their favorite. The cat liked Science Diet. The consensus among our classmates was Meow Mix.
His real science project: How many classmates can he get to eat cat food.
The result: more than you’d expect.
Interesting. At the end of the day though, what matters is what’s healthy for your pet and what they like best.
I never suggested that humans and pets have the same taste buds and appetites, but when your dog refuses to eat a dog treat, and you taste it yourself and it also tastes like chemical garbage, then it only stands to reason that those particular dog treats are trash.
I didn’t realize you were trying to present some sort of argument here, I was just sharing a fun story that answered the post title.
All food tastes like chemicals. Taste is a function of chemical receptors on your tongue. Btw you are made entirely of chemicals, but many people have already told you this today.
I mean, animals don’t necessarily experience taste in the same ways humans do. What tastes terrible to me may still be very appealing to a dog or cat etc., regardless of taste.
The way my dog licks his balls you’d think they taste really good, but they didn’t taste great to me
I’ve licked some good balls before tbh
Exactly. We like sweet things as this is our way to detect glucose for our brain; salty things for minerals, etc. Our pets diets are different, so are their taste preferences. Iirc, a totally blunt piece of dried food tastes great for a cat, since they seek protein more than anything.
Yup, cats can’t taste sweetness for that reason, while birds don’t have receptors for spice and can eat chillies easily.
That’s just the taste buds themselves, additionally:
- A large part of our taste response is tied to smell. This is why food tastes different when sick. It’s also hard to try yourself because you can “smell” through the back of your throat too
- the air around us will affect taste perception, which is why some foods taste better or worse on a plane
- genetic factors exist, such as how some people taste cilantro/parsley as soapy
That’s why hospital food seemed so next level bland, everything smelled like “clean.”
True. Still, have you ever tasted a chemistry set?
I did when I was 10 years old. It’s a wonder I’m still alive. Raw chemicals are not nutrition.
I ate a dog treat that I’m 90% sure was just a bone shaped nilla wafer.
No, but I watched Penguinz0 taste pet food before for a tier list and some of it sounds to be pretty decent.
Interesting. I’ve watched quite a few of his videos, but never caught that one.
Nah, I’m not vegan so I probably wouldn’t like my cat’s food
I’ve just returned to Lemmy after a while so I’m OOTL. Can anyone give me a gist of what happened with the recent vegan drama on here? Or maybe link to a post I can read?
The company Wild Life claims to have created a nutritionally complete vegan cat food, even though it’s common knowledge that cats need meat proteins and nutrients in their regular diet.
https://lemmy.ca/post/27549478
I am no expert in the field, maybe they’re onto something, maybe not. 🤷♂️
Edit: Guess they dropped the link ☹️
Proteins are just amino acids. You can find the same proteins in plant foods as meat. There are other details about what different types of basic foods contain, of course, but it’s theoretically possible to create something that contains all the same nutrients as meat out of plants.
